Marathons and caffeine

It is Dublin Marathon week and there are thousands of people around the country preparing to tackle the monster. Whatever time each runner is hoping for, the distance run on the day is dwarfed by the amount of miles covered over months of training. For some this will be a first marathon; for others it is the next opportunity to try to beat their personal best time. Whatever the reasons for doing the marathon, and there are many, it will be hard. The elite make it look easy, but it is hard. Good club runners maintain a game face, but it is hard. Hell, even walking 42km is hard. But is there anything you can do to make it seem a little easier? Or, out another way, is there anything other marathon runners are doing to help their performance which you should be doing?

In my 20s, I ran a number of fast marathons, but I’d always be falling apart at the end and haemorrhaging time. The memory of each marathon would not be of the atmosphere or the pints after, but of regret at not managing to hold it together to achieve my target times. Then something changed. I took part in a 50k ultra marathon, though only 8k more than the marathon, I needed to do something different or the last quarter of the event was going to be hellish. During longer training runs, up to two and a half hours, I started stopping halfway at a coffee cabin. Not only did the second half of the training run then seem to go quicker; it did so with less effort and with no discernible effects of tiredness other than my legs getting stiffer near the end. I’d stumbled across something many veteran marathon runners take for granted: caffeine makes running easier. Indeed, when I took part in the 50k, I realised I’d come late to the party. They were giving out flat coke after the halfway point and all the runners were using it. That day I finished the 50k faster than I’d run my first ever marathon without caffeine. It is not a secret, it is a fact: all good marathon runners use caffeine. You just need to choose your source and practice with it.

I use Coke. Remember Coke contains caffeine and carbohydrate. Based on my caffeine discovery, I decided to try a caffeine based fuelling strategy on my next marathon. I am not a big fan of gels (they give me stomach cramps – I famously projectile vomited at the end of one marathon and it was all green - so I decided to try bringing along a 500ml bottle of flat coke and water 50/50 mix and drinking this during the event. I left it at mile 15 of the route. This worked ok. I drank water from the water stations until I got to my own bottle and I had my best ever marathon. 

But I hadn’t gotten it right. I had found myself thirsty again at the 21 mile mark; however, my body was revolting taking in more water and it needed more carbohydrate. At my best marathon, I tried drinking 750ml of water between mile 1 and mile 15, I then drank a 500mll bottle of coke/water at mile 15 and mile 21. I smashed my marathon pb and it felt easy doing so. 

This strategy works for me – I’ve used it over 20 times - and might not work for others, but the lessons here are: (1) To use caffeine. It is legal and everyone is using it. If you don’t use it in some form of other, you will reach a point in the race when everything seems harder than it needs to. A 500 ml bottle of Coke contains 48mgs of caffeine; (2) Use carbohydrate but in a form which you are used to consuming. I find the carbohydrate in Coke (54 grammes in a 500ml bottle) enough and I take no gels unless I feel hungry (I carry one in case); and (3) Follow your own pre-planned drinks strategy during the race. I don’t take any caffeine until mile 15 and find this to be the optimum time to take on the caffeine. Others will need the caffeine somewhat earlier. I tend to find mile 20 the hardest and the caffeine needs to be working by then. 

The bottom line is use caffeine; use it in an informed and planned way. It will not run the race for you but it will keep you focused, help you over the wall and in doing so you should avoid slowing in the final stages. If you avoid caffeine for a week before the marathon, you will maximise its impact during the event.